from Liverpool to Santa Cruz. Captain Loose engaged me in Liverpool on
the 4th of September, 1839, to go from Liverpool to Santa Cruz, from
Santa Cruz to St. Jago, and thence to Swansea. I have commanded a ship
in the South American trade, and I have crossed the Atlantic frequently.
I have been to the West Indies, and I know the navigation of those seas.
On the 4th of September we took in a few cases of hardware and a few
kegs of paint. They came from Zulueta's, and I signed bills for them.
From the time I entered the ship to the time we sailed, we took no goods
on board except Zulueta's. I locked the ship up at night, and saw her
again in the morning. One-third of the hold remained unfilled. After I
went on the 4th of September there was no earthenware taken on board,
nor were there any cases of flannels, cloth, or prints. There were no
barrels of butter, beef, or pork taken on board, except for the ship's
use. There were on board two tierces of beef and four barrels of pork.
That was scarcely a sufficient quantity for the outward voyage. When a
vessel sails for a place such as Santa Cruz, it is usual to take
provisions for the homeward as well as the outward voyage. We went out
of the dock on the 6th, and sailed on the 7th of September. We had ten
hands on board, including the boy and the captain. We went through the
North Channel. It is not unusual, according to the wind, to go by the
North Channel. Captain Loose ordered me to get tackles rove and coiled
in the long-boat, that she might be ready if she were wanted. We had no
log-line when we sailed. I endeavoured to make one of spun-yarn, but I
found that it was too heavy. We had no proper log-line while I remained
on board. The log-board was choked when I endeavoured to sound, a short
time after we got to sea. I tried to clear it out, but I could not do
it. I told Captain Loose of it, and he said nothing particular. The pump
was never made to suck. There was a chronometer on board, I think, but I
never saw it. I frequently asked to use it, but Captain Loose would not
allow me to see it. We pursued our course to the West Indian seas. There
is generally a course laid down on the chart as a guide. About longitude
59 deg. W., Loose deviated from the proper track, and steered to the
northward. We first made land at Virgin Guarda. I told the captain that
I had seen the land, and he came on deck, where he remained several
minutes. A few minutes afterwards I observed breakers a-head and low
land. The breakers denoted a reef, and the low land was Anagada. We were
about five miles from it. I observed it about six o'clock in the
morning. I told the captain that I observed breakers a-head, and he
jumped out of bed, and came on deck. Benjamin Shooltz was at the helm,
and I told him to put the helm down, and put the ship round to keep her
off the breakers. The captain then ran to the wheel and put the helm up,
and the ship went direct on towards the breakers. Loose took the wheel
himself, and remained at it a short time. Two of the crew came into the
waist and complained of the captain, and they said that they would take
the helm themselves and put the ship round, for they were not going to
be lost. Upon this the captain left the wheel and Shooltz took it. He
put the helm down again and the ship came round. When the helm was put
down, the ship just cleared the breakers. In a few minutes she would
have been on shore. When the ship came round, the captain said he did
not think she was so near. Before the ship came round, the captain told
me to mind my own d--d business, and take the studding-sails down. He
also said that he would have me tried for mutiny for taking charge of
the ship. This happened on the 17th of October. On the 19th we were on
the Silver Keys, to the north of St. Domingo. He ought, I consider, to
have gone by the south side of St. Domingo, between Antigua and
Guadaloupe, to get to Santa Cruz. The ship ought to have been nearer the
shore to avoid the Silver Keys. They are laid down on all the charts I
have seen. About half-past six or seven o'clock in the morning, I saw a
rock on the larboard bow, about three or four fathoms off. I told this
to the captain, and he came on deck. I pointed the rock out to him. The
captain said he could not see it. He had his telescope in his hand. The
water a-head was discoloured. This indicates a shoal in these seas. One
of the crew from the fore-yard called out, "Rocks under the fore-foot!"
and I and the captain ran forward and looked over the bow. I saw the
rocks, and Captain Loose said, "We are lost! we are all lost!"
Immediately afterwards the ship struck, and remained fast for fifteen or
twenty minutes. Loose ordered the jolly-boat to be hove overboard, and
we put tackles over the long-boat to save ourselves. After about twenty
minutes she got off. She afterwards struck another rock, and remained
upon it a few minutes, but then dragged past it. The captain was putting
a "life-preserver" on during this time. By the second rock the rudder
was unshipped. We now trimmed the sails, to keep the ship before the
wind. I wanted to make a temporary rudder, and I asked the captain to
allow me to take some spars to do so, but he refused, and said we were
in a pretty state--a ship at sea without a rudder--we had better have
been all asleep a few days before, and have allowed the ship to run
ashore at Anagada. The carpenter at length made a temporary rudder, and
on the 20th we got to St. Domingo. Until the 22nd we proceeded along the
coast. We ought, in order to avoid the breakers, to have kept further
off. We were frequently near them, and the crew had all their clothes
packed up ready if the ship should strike. On the 22nd we were near a
reef off Cape Hayti, and the jury-rudder unshipped. The captain asked me
what was best to be done; I said there was no danger if we were to put
in to the harbour. He asked Shooltz and another what they thought, and
they said that the harbour was before them, and they thought they could
get in. Loose said he would not do so, for he had no pilot on board, and
if anything happened to the vessel he should lose the insurance. I then
said that we might put out to sea and replace the jury-rudder, and stand
in and get a pilot the following morning. The captain went to bed at
eight o'clock. I saw a sail about nine on the larboard quarter. I
mentioned this to the captain, and he came on deck. I said she was a
large ship, probably a man-of-war, and she could give us assistance if
we ran down to her. We could have easily gone down before the wind. The
captain would not allow us to go down, and he went to bed again. At
daybreak we were to the south-east of the entrance of the port. We saw a
ship to the north of the port. We were steering towards the reef, and we
could see the breakers a-head. They were probably two miles off. Loose
was on deck about seven o'clock in the morning. The Dryad was then
steering towards the reef, in the direction which he ordered. The ship
we saw to the northward fired a gun, and we found it was the Bencoolen.
This was to warn us that we were running into danger. The Bencoolen had
a union jack hoisted for a pilot, but Loose would not allow me to hoist
one, saying if the pilots were too lazy to come off without a signal,
they might stay ashore. The Dryad kept the same course until a pilot
came on board. When I told Loose that the ship to the northward had
fired a gun and hoisted a signal, he said that was nothing to him. The
pilot came on board about eleven o'clock in the forenoon. The captain
called him aft and showed him the jury-rudder, and asked him if he would
take charge of the vessel. He said he would if the crew would work the
ship in. He then took us into port. This was on Wednesday the 23rd of
October. I left the Dryad on the 2nd of November. I assigned a reason to
Loose for leaving the vessel. I was paid my wages (excepting 2_l._) by
Captain Loose, and I went on board the Bencoolen. [The witness pointed
out on the chart the course taken by the Dryad, and showed the track
that he considered she ought to have gone]. There was nothing in the
state of the wind or weather to induce the captain to keep the ship so
near the shore at St. Domingo.
Benjamin Shooltz examined: In 1839, I shipped on board the Dryad at
Liverpool for Santa Cruz. I have recently come from the coast of Africa.
I came to England seventeen days ago. Captain Loose engaged me. We had
very little provisions on board, and we were poorly furnished with spare
spars, &c. The captain frequently told me to keep the long-boat always
in good order and ready for sea at once. We hove in sight of Anagada on
a Thursday. I saw the breakers and called Maxwell the mate. We were
about four or five miles from them. I received orders from the mate to
put the ship round, and he then went to the captain. When I brought the
ship round, she was going from the breakers. When the captain came on
deck, he cursed me, and asked me who gave me orders to put the ship
about. He took the helm and brought the ship round towards the reef
again. I said to the captain, "I took the orders myself, and I did not
wish to put the ship on a reef in broad daylight." When the captain put
her up again, the crew all came aft to him, and asked him what he
intended to do. He did not keep the helm long, and I went to it when he
went below, and put it down, and the ship went away and cleared the
rocks. If she had gone on two minutes longer, she would have been on the
rocks. Two days afterwards we were on the Silver Keys. We saw breakers
a-head, and a lump of rock a little on the larboard side. I had the helm
at this time. When I saw the Silver Keys, I hailed the mate, and he went
down and informed the captain. When the captain came up, he said he did
not see the rock. He had his glass then. I saw the rock with my naked
eye. A man on the fore-yard, about five minutes afterwards, shouted out
that there was about four feet water under the keel, and he saw rocks.
The captain was on deck, but he did nothing. Shortly afterwards the
vessel struck. The captain was very frightened at the time, and cried
out "What shall we do, lads?--we are lost!" The long-boat was lying on
the gripes off the ship, and the jolly-boat lay upon her. This is the
usual way they are stowed away. When the ship struck, the rudder
unshipped. This was about seven o'clock in the morning. The captain went
to the helm shortly after the Dryad struck. The day before we made St.
Domingo, the strap came off the jury rudder. At that time the captain's
life-preserver was on deck. The crew told him if he put that on, they
would cut it all to pieces. We were then five miles from Cape Hayti.
There was no reason for keeping so close to the shore as we did. I
remember the night before the gun was fired; that night we kept out to
sea. We were about five miles from the breakers when the gun was fired,
and we were then steering direct upon them. The ship's course was not
altered when the gun was fired. The previous night the captain asked me
and Davis, the second mate, what we should do, as we had got no rudder.
We said that the best way would be to keep out to sea, and stand in for
Hayti in the morning. We had not signalled for a pilot on board the
Dryad. When the pilot came on board, he easily put the ship round and
took us into the harbour, where we remained nine or twelve days. Many
complaints were then made by the crew to the captain. We made an effort
to be permitted to leave the ship at St. Domingo, but we were not
allowed by the captain. The mate left the Dryad on the 2d of November.
On the 5th we sailed from Hayti, and on the 10th the Dryad struck on the
reef at Cape Cruz. About ten minutes before, we struck on a small lump
of rock. We saw the reef all the day before, but the ship's course was
not altered to avoid it. I was acting under the orders of the captain
when the ship struck. He was on deck all the night. She struck about
half-past two o'clock in the morning. The captain never was on deck all
night before. A man named Simpson was at the helm, and the captain told
him to run away, or he would get hurt. The crew came on deck and spoke
to the captain. The ship did not make a drop of water that night. I
sounded one of the pumps frequently. No orders were given to the crew to
get the ship off the reef, and he went below. In my judgment, the ship
might have been got off, as the vessel was making no water. The captain
left all the sails up. The crew were willing to work if they had been
directed. If an anchor had been put out and her sails dowsed, she might
have got off. A canoe came off to us. There were Spaniards in it, and
the captain asked if there was a town near, and he was told there was
one about thirty miles over the mountains. The Spaniards also said there
was a consul ashore. The captain went ashore in the boat. He came back
and said he had been to the Spaniard's house. The crew, with the
exception of Simpson and myself, went ashore. The ship made no water at
this time. When the captain was ashore, we made sail with the other boat
and went round the ship. At her stern we found a cigar-box and a bolt
attached to it. The water was clear, and we took it up. We found several
letters and some leaves of the log-book in it. Loose came back from the
shore that night, and the next day he had a conversation with me and the
crew. He took the long-boat with him and we all went to Jamaica, where
the protest was noted. We kept the letters, and at one time produced
them to the captain, and he snatched them away from Simpson, and gave
him four pound-notes for them. This was two days after we got to
Jamaica. After we went to Jamaica, none of us went back to the vessel.
Before I left the ship I found a hole under her stern. No rock could
make such a hole. It was big enough to admit my shoulders. The previous
day she made no water, and I told the captain so. It was on the evening
of the next day I discovered the hole. The weather was not at all
boisterous then. The position in which the ship was could not account
for the hole. I sounded her after finding the hole, and found five feet
of water in the hold. The next day we left for Jamaica. The vessel could
then have been got off. I saw the hole from the inside. It was in the
state-room, which was locked. The captain saw it plainly, being in the
cabin where it was. From the time we struck upon the Silver Keys the
crew kept their clothes in bags in readiness to leave the vessel,
expecting she would get upon a reef. It is my opinion that the ship was
wilfully cast away by the captain.
The witness, in cross-examination, admitted that he had sworn to the
protest which had been drawn up at Jamaica, and had stated in it that he
believed the vessel to have been accidentally lost. He stated that the
effect of the contents of the papers which he had picked up when the
vessel was on the rocks was an intimation from the captain that he had
cast away the ship intentionally; but he also said that the cigar-box in
which they were contained lay at a depth of six fathoms, and that he had
fished it up with an oar. He imagined that Loose had himself cut the
hole which was found in the stern of the ship.
Other evidence was given, from which it appeared probable that Captain
Loose was dead, and by which the various sums of money received on
account of the policies of insurance were traced to the possession of
the two prisoners.
Mr. C. Phillips, on behalf of Patrick Wallace, addressed the jury in a
powerful speech, urging that the evidence of Shooltz was not worthy of
credit, and that without that evidence the case was incomplete; and also
contending that the policies of insurance which had been effected were
by no means so excessive in their amount as to lead to the positive
conclusion that they had been effected with a view to the destruction of
the vessel. He alluded with great force to the death of Loose, and his
consequent inability to put such questions on the cross-examination of
the witnesses as might lead to the development of the truth; and he
urged that the jury having found that a protest was made at Jamaica,
describing the loss of the vessel to have been accidental, which was
signed not only by Shooltz, but by four other persons besides him, and
the captain, they would take that to be the truth, and would on that
ground acquit the prisoner.
Lord Chief Justice Tindal summed up the case to the jury, and after some
consideration they returned a verdict of "Guilty."
On the next morning Michael Wallace was put upon his trial; but, as we
have already stated, the facts proved against him were so precisely
similar to those which were adduced in evidence in the case of his
brother, that they need not be detailed. At the end of the second day's
trial, after a speech to the jury from Mr. Jervis, who appeared for the
defence of this prisoner, in which he again urged the same topics which
formed the grounds of defence in the former case, a verdict of Guilty
was returned.
The two brothers were then placed at the bar to receive sentence.
The Lord Chief Justice in delivering judgment said that it would of
course depend upon the decision upon the point of law whether the
punishment which he should direct them to undergo would be carried out.
The prisoners had been found guilty, after fair and impartial trials
before intelligent juries, of the offence of having feloniously incited
one Edmond Loose, the captain of the ship Dryad, wilfully to cast away
that ship for the purpose of defrauding the underwriters. He felt bound
to say that he was perfectly satisfied with the verdicts which the two
juries had found in the respective cases of the two prisoners. It was an
offence of very grave importance, tending to check the spirit of
mercantile adventure, and the commerce of this country, because it was
aimed at defrauding those persons upon whose responsibility much of that
adventure and commerce depended. It was to be observed that the loss in
this case had fallen upon the underwriters, and the checking of their
business might produce serious results. The effect of a policy of
insurance was to cast upon a company a loss which, if it fell upon one
individual only, might be ruinous in its consequences; and it could not
but be observed that the numerous insurance companies of this city could
no longer exist unless their proceedings were protected by the law, and
offences directed against their fair and honest gains were punished with
its just severity. In this case there were circumstances of great
aggravation, because the result of the foul crime which had been
committed might have been not only the loss of property, but of life.
The penalty applied by the law to this offence was no longer capital. He
rejoiced at that, but at the same time he felt that it was his duty to
visit the offence of the prisoners with a severe punishment. The
sentence of the court was, "That the prisoners should be transported
beyond the seas for the respective terms of their natural lives."
The prisoners were then removed from the bar.
DAVID SAMS.
TRANSPORTED FOR BURGLARY.
The name of this hardened offender has been already before our readers,
and his case will show how unavailing are the most solemn warnings to
the mind naturally addicted to crime.
The first offence alleged against Sams was that of the robbery and
murder of an old pensioner named Bennett, at Tewen, near Hertford. For
that crime he was tried with two other young men named Roach and
Fletcher at the Herts Assizes, when, although there appeared to be very
little moral doubt that he had been the original concoctor of the
scheme, and had actively assisted in the perpetration of the horrible
crime imputed to him, owing to a failure of the necessary legal evidence
as to his identity, he was acquitted, but his two unhappy companions
were convicted and subsequently executed. Almost immediately after this,
Sams committed another robbery, and was tried and convicted, and
sentenced to six months imprisonment. Shortly after this period of
imprisonment had expired, a young man named Thomas Taylor, who had also
been charged with being concerned in the robbery and murder of the old
man, was taken into custody, and upon his trial Sams was admitted as
witness for the Crown, and he then detailed all the circumstances of the
murder, and stated that it was committed by the two men who were
executed, Taylor, and himself, and that they divided the money between
them. Upon this evidence, and other corroborating testimony, Taylor was
convicted and executed.
It might have been thought that such circumstances as these would have
induced Sams to change his wicked courses, the more especially as some
of the gentry in the neighbourhood of Hertford interested themselves in
his behalf, and obtained him employment, whereby he might have earned a
reputable subsistence, but he speedily resumed his old habits, and his
employers could keep him no longer.
He now quitted the vicinity of the scene of his crimes and his disgrace,
but, led on either by want or some worse inducement, he was again guilty
on two separate occasions of acts of felony, for which he was
apprehended and imprisoned.
On his discharge he was again thrown upon the world, and he once more
ventured to the scene of his early life. Old recollections seem but to
have reproduced new acts of crime, and at length he was secured while in
the very act of breaking into a farmhouse at Ware. For this offence he
was tried at the Spring Quarter Sessions for the county of Hertford,
held in March 1841, the Marquis of Salisbury sitting as Chairman. The
evidence was too clear to admit of a doubt being entertained, and a
verdict of Guilty was returned.
The Marquis of Salisbury, in passing sentence, observed that he never
knew an instance of so hardened a criminal as he appeared to be. He
thought he should be neglecting his duty to the public if he did not
pass upon him the severest sentence of the law; which was, that he be
transported for the term of his natural life. The convict heard the
sentence with the greatest coolness, and at its conclusion nodded to one
or two of his old companions in the body of the court, and walked away
laughing from the bar.
WILLIAM STEVENSON.
TRANSPORTED FOR LARCENY.
The charge preferred against this person, and of which he was found
guilty, was that of stealing from his employers, Messrs. Mercer and Co.,
of the Maidstone Bank, a bag containing 500_l._ in gold. For this
offence he was tried at the Maidstone spring assizes, on the 17th of
March 1841, before Lord Denman, when the following remarkable facts were
proved in evidence:--
It seemed that in the month of October, 1839, Mr. Mercer wrote to his
London agents, Messrs. Masterman, the bankers, to remit to him fifteen
hundred pounds in gold, and five hundred pounds in silver, and that sum
was accordingly placed in seven bags, one containing a thousand pounds
in gold, another five hundred in gold, and five bags, each containing
one hundred pounds in silver, and the whole were placed in a box, of
which Messrs. Masterman and Mercer had each a duplicate key, and the box
was then committed to the care of Wallis, one of the Maidstone coachmen,
to be conveyed to that place. The box was duly carried to Maidstone, and
the prisoner, who acted as porter at Mr. Mercer's bank, was sent to
fetch it, and he brought the box to the bank about seven o'clock in the
evening, and it was taken from him by Mr. Mercer, jun., who unlocked it
and took out the bags of coin, and, without examining them, placed them
in the strong chest; but he observed that at this time there were only
six bags, namely, one large one, which he supposed contained the fifteen
hundred pounds in gold, and the five bags of silver. The next morning,
upon the money being examined, it was found to be five hundred pounds
short of the proper quantity of gold, and on a communication being made
to Messrs. Masterman, the loss of the second bag of gold was discovered.
No clue whatever at this time could be obtained as to the perpetrator of
the robbery, but no suspicion was entertained of the prisoner, and he
was retained in the prosecutors' service until the following month of
January, when, for some act of misconduct, he was dismissed. Shortly
after this, the prisoner set up in business in the town as a grocer, and
some other circumstances coming to the knowledge of the prosecutors,
induced a suspicion that he was the thief, and a search warrant was
obtained and placed in the hands of Faucett, the superintendant of the
Maidstone police, who proceeded to the prisoner's house, and, upon
searching it, he found a number of watches and time-pieces. When the
prisoner was told by the officer what was the nature of the charge
against him, he denied all knowledge of the robbery, and told him he
might search where he pleased. The officer then asked what money they
had in the house, and about seven pounds in gold and silver were
produced by the prisoner's wife. He asked whether they had not got any
more money, and the prisoner's wife went up to the bed-room with him,
and she produced from between the bed and the mattress a bag, containing
forty-five pounds in sovereigns and half-sovereigns. He also found an I
O U for 10_l._, signed by a person named Merston, who proved that the
prisoner lent him ten sovereigns upon it, and that he was paying him
interest.
It was also proved that before the robbery the prisoner had only been in
the receipt of a pound a week, and that he was in very poor
circumstances; and it appeared that after he was discharged he had
purchased two houses in Maidstone, for which he paid 350_l._, and the
payment was wholly in sovereigns and half-sovereigns. Further it was
shown, that the prisoner had taken the grocer's shop and had paid a
considerable sum for good-will and stock in trade, without having any
means to do so, except, as was suggested, by that of having committed
the robbery.
Mr. Sergeant Shea made a powerful address to the jury on behalf of the
prisoner, and said that the sole evidence by which it was sought to
convict him of the crime imputed to him was his being in possession of
an amount of money which the prosecutors chose to consider he could not
have been possessed of by his own means. The learned counsel said,
however, that he hoped to be able to satisfy the jury that the money the
prisoner had spent was his own property.
Some witnesses were then called for the purpose of showing that at the
various elections in the borough sums of money had been given to the
prisoner, and it was elicited that a vote was always worth something,
and one witness went so far as to say that he considered his vote worth
15_l._
Several other witnesses were examined, but although it was admitted that
money had been given to the prisoner in sums of 8_l._ and 10_l._ at
different times, the witnesses said the money was only given out of
charity, and the evidence did not in the slightest degree show a
probability of the prisoner being lawfully in the possession of the
money he had expended.
Lord Denman then summed up the evidence, and went through the whole of
it in the most careful and impartial manner, and concluded by leaving
the case in the hands of the jury, who, after a short deliberation,
returned a verdict of "Guilty."
The learned judge, addressing the prisoner, said that no person who had
heard the evidence adduced could doubt, for a moment, that he was guilty
of the offence imputed to him. It was a very serious one, and he felt
himself called upon to pass a severe sentence. His lordship then ordered
him to be transported for fourteen years.
JAMES INGLETT.
CONVICTED OF MANSLAUGHTER.
The case of this unfortunate person excited considerable interest in the
vicinity of the place where it occurred, as well on account of the
peculiar circumstances by which it was surrounded, as of the great age
and high respectability of character of the accused. Inglett at the time
of his trial had attained the age of ninety-four years; he was indicted
at the Huntingdon assizes on the 19th of March 1841, for feloniously
killing and slaying one Elizabeth Harlett, by administering to her a
quantity of arsenic.
The very venerable person who stood charged with this offence had for
many years carried on the business of farmer and "cow-leech," and in
the latter character was in the habit of administering medicines to
various kinds of cattle. His great age and his long acquaintance with
the healing art had caused him to be regarded with much respect among
the simple people of his neighbourhood, where his character had been
unexceptionable. The deceased, who lived in the village of Houghton,
near Huntingdon, was taken ill during the year 1840, and the parish
apothecary used all his art to restore her to health, but in vain. About
Christmas the prisoner was called in to see her, and he immediately
administered to her a dose of liquid medicine, which made her very sick,
and caused her great suffering, but she got better after taking it; and
on the morning of the day when the fatal potion was given to her by the
prisoner, she was, as her sister said, "quite purely." On the morning of
Monday the 11th of January, the prisoner called to see her; as soon as
he had left the house, one of her sisters saw standing on the
mantel-piece of the room in which the deceased was sitting a cup full of
a similar medicine to that which he had before administered to her, and
which had made her so sick and ill. When, three or four hours
afterwards, this sister went again into the room, she found the deceased
very unwell, and the cup standing empty on the table. The deceased got
much worse towards night, and from that time till her death she was
constantly sick, and suffered excruciating pain, with almost intolerable
thirst. Early on Wednesday morning, January the 13th, having taken some
opium pills, she fell into a quiet doze, and soon afterwards death put
an end to her sufferings, and she woke no more. No suspicion was then
entertained of her having died any other than a natural death, and in
due time she was buried. When she had been ten days in the earth,
however, various rumours got abroad respecting the cause of her death;
and the county coroner directed the body to be exhumed, and a jury to be
summoned. Two surgeons examined the disinterred body, and found it in a
generally healthy state, the organs being sound and free from disease,
but the stomach and bowels were much inflamed; and the jury returned a
verdict that she had died from the incautious and improper administering
by the prisoner of "a certain noxious, inflammatory, and dangerous thing
to the jurors unknown;" and the old man was committed to prison for
manslaughter.